Public Service Announcements Get Major Play

For some people, it’s the delight of unexpectedly seeing a “commercial” about chronic fatigue syndrome while watching their morning news or favorite TV show. “It is exactly my feelings and experience with CFS,” wrote one young mother. “Thank you for creating such a perfect PSA that fits my life. I almost cried when I saw it.”

Others report being even more excited when family or friends have had the experience. “I think my brother in Ohio took my CFS seriously for the first time when he heard the radio PSA twice in one week,” says one male CFS patient who called recently. “The message coming from a big radio station had more impact than anything I’ve ever said to him myself.” 

Fortunately, these experiences haven’t been isolated. In the six months since the official launch of the public awareness campaign at the November 3 press conference, the television and radio PSAs have played in 45 states and aired in 8 out of the top 10 markets, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston and Philadelphia.

The 30-second television spot, which was distributed to all the major networks and to more than 800 local stations nationwide, has already played more than 8,500 times on 251 stations. Some stations have played the PSA only a few times, while others have put it into rotation and played it dozens of times.

The radio PSAs consist of a 60-second spot, a 30-second spot and four versions of “live read” copy for the disc jockey or announcer to read live during regular station programming. They were distributed to major radio networks and to 2,500 local stations across the country. So far, stations report that they have already aired, or intend to air, these PSAs more than 23,000 times, reaching a total listening audience of around 150 million.

According to Will Taliaferro, a partner at GMMB, the advertising agency the CFIDS Association hired to help with the public awareness campaign, the results of the PSAs so far, have been incredible when compared to other campaigns. “The television PSA on chronic fatigue syndrome has received far more air time in more markets than the majority of other public service campaigns that are running concurrently,” says Taliaferro. The TV PSA has consistently ranked in the top third out of around 470 public service campaigns being tracked in the Nielsen rankings during the past six months. And radio stations are already projecting more than 270 hours of free airtime worth more than $1.3 million for the radio PSAs—an impressive achievement for a small campaign. “The fact that a small-budget campaign about CFS is garnering so much attention is a real achievement,” says Taliaferro, who has worked on dozens of campaigns in his career.

The PSAs will air until April 2008. So if you haven’t seen or heard them yet, take heart. The CFIDS Association will continue to work to get as many stations as possible to play the PSAs throughout the duration of the campaign.

Click here to view the television PSA.

TV PSA (through May 2007)
Nielson ranking of our TV PSA campaign (ranked 153 out of 461)	Top 33%
Number of times PSA has played	8,561
Number of stations that have played PSA	251
Number of times aired on networks (national; not local affiliates)	61
Number of top 10 markets using PSA	8 out of 10
Percentage of plays 6:00 a.m. to 11:30 p.m.	50%
Number of viewer impressions	67 million
Estimated value in air time if paid for	$610,000
Radio PSAs (through May 2007)
Number of states reporting PSA plays	45
Number of top 10 markets using PSAs	8 out of 10
Number of times PSAs have played	23,581
Number of projected listener impressions	149 million
Estimated value in air time if paid for	$1,360,000